Stranded With My Mother-in-Law (Ilhados com a Sogra) is a Brazilian reality show released on Netflix on October 9, 2023. It is hosted by Fernanda Souza and directed by Sarah Rodrigues and Vivian Alano. There are 8 episodes, out of which only four are released with a runtime of about 45-55 minutes.
Fernanda Souza describes the show as a social experiment where six couples will leave their routines in the city and go to a deserted island off the coast of São Paulo. Initially, the pairs believe they will be competing against other couples together for a prize of R$500,000.
The competition for the cash prize will take place, but not as a couple’s competition. In fact, the game will bring a big surprise – participants will discover that sons-in-law and daughters-in-law will be confined with their respective mothers-in-law, forming the true pairs of the experiment. Whichever In-Law duo stays at the top of the games while also mending their strained relationship will eventually become the winner.
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Stranded With My Mother-in-Law Episodes 1-4 Review
The show starts off a bit differently and instead of introducing the couples, we get to meet the mothers as they give us a bit hints about their personalities. While the couples enter the location where they will be staying and get to know about the prize money. Their names or what they do is not revealed but they are quickly taken to their first match. They are told to row their boats to the platform in the middle of the water to extract jewels and bring them back. Then they will have to hook themselves to the tangled-up ribbons on the pole and untangle it to get the flag.
According to the time duration they finish the game they will get to live in three different accommodations. The first one is the VIP, which includes a luxury secluded room with all the amenities. Second, is the basic room which is to be shared with one another team and has comparatively fewer amenities. The last is the rustic room, where they will have to sleep on a floor mattress and shower in the open with cold water. Obviously, everyone was aiming for the VIP room and making strategies to finish first.
What they didn’t expect was that the said ‘jewel’ was actually their mother-in-law standing on the platform, waiting to be rescued and play along with them. The show features only one of the parents of the participating couples, usually those where they don’t see each other eye to eye and have lots of conflicts to resolve. The contestants and their mother-in-laws are as follows.
Rogeria is Rodrigo’s mother and she had issues with the couple’s exposing social media. Since they run an online sex store, they often model for their posts and that doesn’t sit well with Rogeria. On the other hand, Taninha is Francine’s mother and she just wants the couple to move out into their own homes. Because they both live with their parents while alternating their stay in both homes, each week.
On the other hand, Cristina is Antonio’s mother and she feels neglected by her daughter-in-law, Ana. Cristina feels that she was pushed to move out of her own home when Ana moved in & claimed it to be her house. Marcia is Thiago’s mother and her main issue with Silvia is possessiveness and jealousy. She feels that Silvia feels threatened & jealous of Marcia, while she doesn’t really like Silvia carries herself.
Socorro is Vinicius’ mother and would be the only one who doesn’t really have major issues with her son-in-law, Felipe. The only concern she raised is the distance between them as Felipe isn’t that open or loving towards her & she wants to change that.
Lastly, Severina certainly has most issues with her daughter Mayara’s partner, Thy. Her concern was that she had never even met Thy, except through phone calls and she felt hurt that he never made the effort to come see her in person. She was also concerned about their financial situation and wanted better for her daughter.
The couples were certainly shocked to see the mothers but tried to do their best to win the challenge. Thiago & Silvia Dunker were the first ones to rescue Marcia and untangle Pole. Followed by Vinicius & Felipe, Rodriguinho & Francine were the fastest to rescue but came third while untangling, along with Rodrigo and Thais. Mayara & Thy were the last ones to complete the task while Antonio & Ana couldn’t even reach Cristina with their boat and tapped out. The next surprise that came after the task was what shook them – one of the partners had to leave, leaving the in-laws to form the ultimate team.
Some of the contestants became quite emotional since they would be stuck with the person they wouldn’t even want to interact with. But their partners weren’t really sent home. They were hidden in a literal underground bunker and kept an eye on everything that was happening in the show. After every task, they were given honeycombs (according to the place they took in the competition) to keep track of whose at which level. They were also given a SOS button to use in emergencies so that they could talk to their family if needed. But in exchange, they would have to give the honeycombs back.
Each day they would have tasks that would test their trust levels, how much they know about each other and something even urge them to spit out the ugly truths of their relationships. In some of the sensitive tasks where they needed to get things off their chest, a professional counsellor named Shenia Karlson would act as a mediator & host the show. But more often, meeting with her would make things much worse between the in-laws and would not offer any solution to their problem.
One of the most talked about duo had to be Severina and Thy, from the start she made it evident that her loud personality would not hold back at any moment. But it also made her a bit distant from others. Even though her relationship with Thy wasn’t all that bad as she had expected, they acted like they didn’t like each other. However, others could see through their act and often avoided including them in many things. Yet it was good to see them bond and get along compared to how Severina entered the show fuming in anger.
Meanwhile, the contestant that didn’t sit quite well with me personally was Felipe. He was unnecessarily mean and sarcastic towards Socorro when she was always trying to be nice to him. One can see that she had her own mental health issues added to ageing issues but giving her an attitude and treating her badly for it just left a bad impression of him as a person. He tries to portray himself as the nicest and the best person but he really needs to work on his own anger issues.
Talking about the mothers, one can see who could be responsible for driving away their kids & their spouses. While others were only disappointed to be drifted apart while their kids were busy in their own lives & couldn’t care less about their parents. One thing is for sure that the show makers deliberately pit the family members against each other to stir the drama and aren’t really going to help them mend the broken connections. Even if someone wins the competition, it’s highly unlikely that the relationship will become better and they might be fighting about their share of the prize afterwards.
Stranded With My Mother-in-Law is available for streaming on Netflix.
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